Last week I received an email from my cousin Dana with the following question and statement:
"When are you officially reporting Dr. Pain? Do it before Yom Kippur so you can cleanse yourself of him in the new year."
Brilliant, I thought! What a great idea. So, this past weekend I got everything organized and emailed the woman at our hospital who is in charge of dealing with patient satisfaction issues.
I feel horrible admitting it, but it actually felt good to report Dr. Pain and his Painettes (a phrase I cannot take credit for, but I think it is so clever! Thanks Lois!).
In reality, the story of Dr. Pain and his Painettes speaks for so many people who have experienced such treatment from the medical profession.
I appreciate all of the amazing validation and encouragement you all provided me along the way.
And I feel good knowing that I did the right thing in standing up for myself, and ultimately for all of us desiring better health care.
Below is the email response I received from Kathy at the hospital and the email I sent her regarding my experiences with Dr. Pain and his Painettes. I did speak with her via phone before emailing her more detailed information. Details have been erased/edited for privacy purposes. I emailed Kathy on Saturday and heard back from her promptly on Monday morning.
I'll be interested to see how this all plays out!
Blessings,
Emily
Hello Emily,
Thank you for emailing me so that I can investigate. I put your original message aside in my 'pending' pile and now I will begin a active file. I have read your email, but not your Blog. I will read it later today after my meetings and then, I will decide on my next step. I do respect your need for confidentiality during this investigation and clearly understand your reasoning for requesting it. Please give me a month to get back to you about your complaint, so that there is sufficient time to investigate and have some follow up action.
Thank you for bring your concerns to my attention, so that we can make any needed improvements to our care and service. And I really appreciate your kinds words about the individuals that you mentioned below.
Take care of yourself, while I am taking care of your concerns, Emily!
Kathy
Kathy:
I apologize for how long it has taken me to get the following information to you. I wanted to write about my last encounter with Dr. Pain and his staff before I emailed everything to you. Due to the nature of my illness I have very limited energy and stamina, so it takes me a very long time to get things done. My apologies.
I know that we discussed issues such as "poor communication" and "attitude", however I feel it is very important for you to read my blog entries about what exactly happened during my interactions with both Dr. Pain and his office staff. What happened cannot be put in a little box of "attitude" or "communication".
I have been ill for over 9 years now and have seen my share of doctors. I have a very difficult and complicated case, which I understand. Many doctors locally have been humble enough to tell me that I am and probably will be the only such patient they see in their lifetimes. Rather than attack a patient because a doctor does not understand her illness, I would like to see a change in attitude among ALL physicians at [the hospital] towards patients with difficult cases. I have a specialist who's pager is always available to doctors who might need to contact him. I have had mixed experiences so far at [the hospital].
I DO want to commend the following people who are either employed by [the hospital] or have hospital privileges there for their exceptional care:
[names all deleted for privacy purposes]
All of these folks have gone above and beyond for me both during my gallbladder surgery in 2005 and my many visits that followed to both the ER and the MTU. They were great about calling my specialist, paging Dr. Gallbladder, dealing with my difficult veins, and making sure I received WARM fluids. Sorry that I do not know specific names or last names of each of these folks. I was pretty out of it on many of my visits to the hospital! Please let me know if you would like anymore details on what makes each of these people so exceptional. And please feel free to use my name in telling them that they have been commended for their outstanding and compassionate care.
I do not know if the following two nurses still work on the Med-Surge floor--but Becky and Debbie both had very unacceptable behavior during my time spent there. For example, I told Becky that I needed to be cathed (as I still was unable to urinate on my own) and she told me it was not possible that I needed one. I was in excruciating discomfort and waited over 2 hours for someone to cath me, at which time I had more than 1000 ccs in my bladder.
I understand that my blogs are long, and I also ask that you take into account the audience for which they were written (my friends and family). I do want to note the outpouring of support I have received. I have repeatedly been validated that this sort of behavior is unacceptable, that doctors DO call people back, that his treatment is outrageous, etc.
Here are links to my blog entries on my experiences with Dr. Pain. He is called 'Dr. Pain' for privacy purposes, as I do not use names or addresses on my blog.
Link to description of first appointment with Dr. Pain as well as my call to him when he was 'on call':
http://adancinglight.blogspot.com/2007/08/part-ii-crash-boom-boom.html
Link to description of continued dialogues with Dr. Pain's office staff:
http://adancinglight.blogspot.com/2007/08/making-patients-wait.html
The waiting game continues (as does the frustration):
http://adancinglight.blogspot.com/2007/08/dr-pain.html
My most recent and most demeaning encounter with Dr. Pain's office to date:
http://adancinglight.blogspot.com/2007/09/dr-pain-super-duper-pain-in-toosh-and.html
I am very concerned that if Dr. Pain's office knows who reported him, his office staff will continue to 'punish' me at future visits, so I ask that my complaint be kept anonymous and that details which might 'give away' my identity be used carefully.
I would also appreiciate a follow-up call, email or letter letting me know what has been done to deal with the poor treatment occurring at the Pain Management Clinic.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration of this matter,
Emily
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